We…will lift up our banners in the name of our God… —PSALM 20:5 (NIV)
When our son Chris was due back in North Carolina after his fifteen-month deployment to Iraq, my husband Gordon ordered an eight-foot-long, bright green plastic banner that said, “Welcome Home, Capt. Chris Barber!” On arrival day, Gordon nailed the banner to two eight-foot poles of wood. When he and our son John lifted it up, I thought, That’s way too big. Gordon has gone overboard.
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As we crowded behind a rope outside the hangar at the airfield, the banner was so big that Gordon had to stand at the back of the crowd. I stood up front and cheered at the top of my lungs as our soldiers came down the aircraft steps. Suddenly, they began marching quickly toward the large hangar doors. Families rushed to cram through a single doorway behind the ropes; I couldn’t see Gordon.
I was barely in the door when a loudspeaker began playing “The Star-Spangled Banner.” I froze in place and put my hand over my heart, feeling lost. Two teardrops fell onto my hand. How would I ever find our family in the chaos when the ropes separating us from the soldiers were undone? Suddenly something big and green caught my eye on the far side of the room: the impossibly big banner!
The ropes came down. People swarmed everywhere. I battled the crowd over to the banner. By the time I reached it, Chris had found it too. We hugged and smiled and laughed.
As we left the hangar, it occurred to me that you can never really go overboard on signs of love. So lift up your banner as high as you can today so that those who are feeling lost and lonely can gladly gather ’round!
Dear Father, make my smile a banner that welcomes everyone home to Your love.
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